Workers in Japan are risking their health to clean up the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant by cooling the nuclear reactors. Many Americans clearly remember the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island– so how does the current crisis in Japan compare?

Lake Barrett is a Nuclear Engineer and is familiar with containing nuclear crises, having served as Site Director of Three Mile Island accident. Barrett talks to Kiran Chetry and Christine Romans about the challenges of containing radiation leaks and compares the current situation with the 1979 accident in the U.S.

soundoff(2 Responses)

sol

Three Mile was 1979 and this is 2011 hopefully the physics has developed past the point of aiming a water pistol at an inferno. We must have acquired a few more tricks beyond the elementary since then. Japan is in a state of shock and I think we must be too because we've been watching the meltdown happen for DAYS. In the kitchen we know how to put out a fire but we don't cook with these elements. What about sound shock waves to slow the uranium reaction? Something...Anything... Time for science to step up.

March 17, 2011 at 8:14 pm |

Aay

Kiran, what proof or evidence do you have that the Workers, Engineers and Scientists at the nuclear plants who are trying to cool down the reactors in Japan have been sent on a suicide mission.

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